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Title page for ETD etd-03262009-102136

Type of Document

Master's Thesis

Author

Dunn, Madeleine Jackson

Author's Email Address

madeleine.dunn@vanderbilt.edu

URN

etd-03262009-102136

Title

Psychological Distress in Mothers and Fathers of Children with Cancer: Posttraumatic Stress, Depression, and Anxiety Symptoms

Degree

Master of Science

Department

Psychology

Advisory Committee

Advisor Name

Title

Bruce E. Compas

Committee Chair

Megan M. Saylor

Committee Member

Keywords

childhood cancer

parents

PTSS

psychological distress

Post-traumatic stress disorder

Sick children -- Family relationships

Parent and child

Cancer in children -- Psychological aspects

Date of Defense

2009-03-30

Availability

unrestricted

Abstract

The current study examined posttraumatic stress (PTSS), depression, and anxiety symptoms in a sample of mothers and fathers of children with cancer. Mothers (n = 153) and fathers (n = 76) of 154 children with cancer completed self-report measures of psychological distress between 12 and 108 days after their child’s initial diagnosis or most recent date of relapse. Descriptive statistics and distributions of psychological symptoms were examined in detail. Significant relations among symptoms, demographic variables, and medical variables were relatively few in number and small in magnitude. Comparisons demonstrated that lower socioeconomic status and being a single parent may be risk factors for elevated psychological distress. The current findings suggest that a large percentage of mothers and fathers experience clinically-significant elevations in acute PTSS less than 4 months after their child’s diagnosis, but that these parents are generally not at risk for elevated depressive and generalized anxiety symptoms.